It’s not just the flu that’s going around…

H1N1 Influenza Virus. Image courtesy of the CDC.
H1N1 Influenza Virus.
Image courtesy of the CDC.

UPDATE: A major paper supporting the autoimmunity narcolepsy connection has been retracted, please see my update to this post here.

It’s been a pretty rough flu season. While my household has so far been lucky, (knocking on wood all over the house) many were knocked out of commission by this year’s influenza epidemic. Now, it turns out there’s more to be worried about than just catching the flu. A long range result of having the flu or having a flu vaccine can be development of narcolepsy…..What?!

Narcolepsy is a neurological condition in which your brain cannot regulate sleep and wake cycles appropriately. Narcoleptics can fall asleep at any time regardless of their current activity. Large-scale genetic studies have shown that narcolepsy has a strong association with mutations in the T cell receptor alpha locus. This surprising link to the immune system led to research that implicates auto-immune malfunction wherein a person’s immune system kills neurons expressing the protein hypocretin which is necessary to regulate wakefulness.

So now how is this related to the flu? Continue reading “It’s not just the flu that’s going around…”

Science Caturday: I can haz caption?

UPDATE: We haz winner!

I can haz caption?

The internet loves cats. The internet loves science. Michele regularly mashes these two things together to create something that is more than the sum of its parts: Science Caturday.

Since Michele and I will be too “busy” at ScienceOnline 2013 to come up with clever captions for this Saturday. So, we are giving you the opportunity to do our job for us and to make with the funny, the insightful, and the educational – caption these cats for us. Unlike most crowd sourcing efforts that try to get you to do someone else’s job for them without reward, we are going to reward the winning caption* with a ScienceOnline themed petri dish ornament by Michele.

ScienceOnline Petri DishesLeave your suggestions either in the comments section or by using the twitter hashtag #scihaz13. A winner will be chosen Saturday morning after we have had at least one cup of coffee. Selection criteria will be completely subjective and indefensible on any grounds.

*In the case that the legal personhood of the caption is not recognized by the United States government, we will award the artwork to the author of the caption.

The Art of Science: Wallace’s Flying Frog

Flying-frog-Sarawak-1855-by-Alfred-Russel-Wallace-200x275

Last week, the Natural History Museum in London unveiled a digital archive of the letters of 19th century naturalist Alfred Russel Wallace, the co-discoverer with Charles Darwin, of evolution by natural selection. The archive, introduced on the 100th anniversary of Wallace’s death, naturally focuses on his writings, but also contains some paintings and drawings. Wallace, who spent years in far-flung places collecting specimens, didn’t have the option of pulling out a camera to document his finds. He often sketched or painted his discoveries, including this lovely watercolor of a flying frog which he painted in Sarawak. It may not be Audubon-level in its artistry and detail, but it’s a useful scientific illustration which also has great personality and charm.

Science Tourist: Pacific Science Center

I don’t always seek out science-themed locations when travelling. Sometimes, they’re just there. In October I spent one day in Seattle, during which I ran around all day, trying to see all the sights while fighting off a cold. I saw the world’s first Starbucks, and the wall of gum, and the market, and the underground city, and I had walked all the way to the Space Needle when I suddenly came across a science museum.

The Pacific Science Center is right at the foot of the Space Needle next to the very pretty Chihuly Garden and Glass. I went in less than an hour before closing time, so I didn’t get to see everything, but at least it was nice and quiet.

Unfortunately, if I hadn’t been here so recently, I doubt I would have remembered much of this visit. Not just because I spent very little time there, but because most of the exhibits I saw were quite generic. I just couldn’t get excited about a lot of the permanent exhibits.

Take the dino room. It sounded promising, but when I got there, it was a bit…clunky. Maybe I’m too old for animatronic dinosaurs, or maybe I’ve seen too many exhibits like this. Maybe it was because I wasn’t feeling very well that day. I don’t know. I took a few seconds of video there. What do you think?


Continue reading “Science Tourist: Pacific Science Center”

Moms are awesome, both in science and in song [repost]

Editor’s Note – I selected a repost of Marie-Claire’s take on Frazey Ford’s tune because I’m going to be ScienceOnline 2013, which is only possible because my amazing spouse is willing to take charge of both educating the youth of America and our genetics experiment (n=2) while I’m away. Moms are, indeed, awesome. – Josh Witten

Marie-Claire is going to be very busy over the next month educating the youth of Canada. Too busy to even listen to music, which is about her favorite thing to do, after educating the youth of Canada. In the meantime, we will be reposting some of our favorite Song of the Week posts…

Early Christmas morning 1985, I quietly crept out bed. There was something that I really wanted, and I had to see if it was there. Tip-toeing down the long hallway, careful to avoid the floorboards that I knew would creak, I held my breath. Continue reading “Moms are awesome, both in science and in song [repost]”